Can-Con 45 Of The Day - March 4

[radiofan]

Today's Can-Con 45 is from 1975 ... Written by Bruce Miller, it's Susan Jacks and "Anna Marie" ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRyulDYN6O0

[Richard Skelly]

By gosh, Anna Marie is a country rock song that sparks oodles of memories, some of them bittersweet.

Only recently, after decades of litigation and dashed hopes, has Susan Jacks finally been able to have Anna Marie and other tracks from her 1975 Dream album sold on CD or by online download. Recorded in Los Angeles—under the guidance of ex-Chilliwack multi-instrumentalist Claire Lawrence—Dream included great compositions by Kim Carnes, Kenny Loggins, Bim (aka Roy Forbes), Ken Tobias and Bruce Miller (who had released his own version of Anna Marie a year earlier). During session breaks, Susan and Claire would chat with neighbouring-studio artists, including George Harrison who liked to grab a smoke on the outdoor patio. (I’m guessing the Harrison encounter was at A&M Studios in Hollywood since George regularly used it to finish tracks begun in his London mansion.)

In a perfect world, the big-budget Dream would have broken Susan Jacks well beyond Canada as a strong solo female vocalist. But Casino Records was already labouring under expenses incurred for other label signings such as Bim, Foreman Young Band and Chilliwack (the post-Claire Lawrence version). Casino was run by Ray Pettinger, a former London Records promo rep and Terry Jacks associate. He teamed up with Susan after she and Terry divorced. The overextended enterprise was pretty well toast by 1976. But because Susan was an investor as well as artist, it became a Herculean-verging-on-Quixotic quest to reclaim rights to Dreams.

As for Anna Marie composer Bruce Miller, he later scored some success with Rude Awakening for A & M Records. I remember Bruce arriving in Vancouver circa 1973. Apparently an American ex-pat, he was soon performing with Danny Mack, Fireweed and other artists in the city’s nascent indie-country scene. Long before Bruce recorded his version of Anna Marie, I was regularly wowed by live performances of the song at venues like the Pender Auditorium.

It’s good news that all the Dream tracks, but especially Anna Marie, are available for new listeners to enjoy. They reveal a Susan Jacks at the top of her game. She still performs occasionally...but is again on a kidney-transplant waiting list. An earlier transplanted organ—donated years ago by her brother—eventually failed. A brave lady, Susan remains one of Canada’s finest-ever chanteuses.